One popular brewing system is a single serve system in which a capsule filed coffee, tea, or cocoa is inserted into the system to brew a single cup. The brewing system has a holder in which a bottom has a needle that is capable of puncturing a bottom of the capsule. A top cover is adapted to be lowered onto a top of the capsule. The top cover has a needle in an interior of the top cover with the needle capable of initially puncturing a top of the capsule. The needle in the top cover is also configured to deliver a liquid, such as hot water, through the needle in the top cover, into and through the capsule, out of the needle in the bottom of the holder, and out through a deliver spout provided on an exterior bottom of the holder. The system also has a water container connected to the needle in the top cover for providing of heated water to the capsule to brew the beverage. The delivery spout in bottom of the holder is used to funnel a brewed beverage out of the brewing system. Underneath the delivery spout is a cup that is placed there to capture the brewed beverage. In this manner, a single serving of a beverage is conveniently brewed. As can be appreciated, once a single serving of beverage is brewed, the used capsule is removed from the brewing system and another capsule is inserted therein for the next brewing operation to take place.
Some variations of the brewing system allow various sized beverages to be brewed. For example, if an individual wants to brew a ten ounce cup of coffee, then a button is selected to indicate that the brewing system should provide ten ounces of heated water through the capsule to brew only ten ounces of coffee. If an individual wants to brew twelve ounces of a beverage, another button on the brewing system is selected to have the brewing system only brew twelve ounces of the beverage. Although the quantity of beverage to be brewed is controllable, the quality of beverage to be brewed is not when using this brewing system.
In an effort to control the quality of a beverage to be brewed, there are some brewing systems that now incorporate the ability to accept different sized capsules to brew different strength beverages. For example, if a strong coffee is desired to be brewed, such brewing systems are adapted to accommodate a large capsule or a supercapsule. The large capsule is bigger than the typical single serve capsule and is able to contain a larger amount of coffee, tea, cocoa, or the like. In this manner, a stronger beverage may be brewed in the same sized cup. In order to accommodate these different sized capsules, the capsule holder or funnel is modified to allow the larger capsule to fit within the funnel. The capsule holder is further modified to include a pair of tiered piercing needles. An upper needle is positioned to pierce the bottom of a typical capsule and a lower needle is positioned to pierce the bottom of a large capsule. In this manner, two different sized capsules may be used in the same brewing device.
Although the brewing system that can handle different sized capsules is useful, there is no provision for automatically removing and disposing of either sized capsules once a brewing operation has been completed. As can be appreciated, if the brewing system is used in a commercial environment, it would be advantageous to quickly be able to automatically remove and dispose of a used capsule and to be able to insert a new capsule to immediately initiate another brewing operation. It would be beneficial if the used capsule, which may be wet, hot, and messy, would not have to be handled to remove the capsule from the brewing system.
The present disclosure is designed to obviate and overcome many of the disadvantages and shortcomings experienced with prior brewing systems. The present disclosure is related to a beverage brewing device for brewing of multiple size beverage capsules and for removal of the brewing capsule once a beverage has been brewed. The present disclosure is also directed to a device for brewing a single cup capsule beverage of different sizes through a vending machine and the device is equipped to dispense and dispose of the different sized capsules once a brewing operation has been completed.